Rebecca Mardal – When I Come Around
Every famous song has been covered numerous times. But just what are the people covering the music, really hoping to achieve when they redo a classic, a tune that the vast majority of their audience will instantly recognise?
For the most part, they’re looking for an easy way into your affections. You like the original, maybe you’ll like them also.
Similar thoughts are involved when such songs are performed live. The logic there is that audiences are less likely to be thrilled by originals that they do not know. Maybe if they dance to a song they have heard, they’ll come back next week.
But none of this would do for Rebecca Mardal. She must’ve heard pub bands hacking their way, in good faith, often, through Green Day’s greatest hits. But why do you like those songs to begin with?
Mardal believes that the music, at its very core, connected deeply with something in you. She’s also of the belief that “When I Come Around,” the 90s pop-punk anthem, is developed enough to be performed in the same way that a classical piece of music might be reinterpreted. Covers are a dime a dozen, but this one is something else.
The Overjoyed – Rotten Love
You don’t get to join an internationally successful sports team, I reckon, if you can’t outrun, at least, one member of the squad. How could it work otherwise? Then why are so many supposed punk-rock bands of the present era unable to keep up the pace and intensity with the groups that played this kind of music decades ago?
Punk-rock is supposed to be over-the-top, yes. But, most importantly, it’s supposed to be played by people who can keep their balance while madly giving it their own. There are few art forms that are more graceful than punk-rock, other than ballet. And neither one should have any room for hacks. The Overjoyed are one of the few groups reminding us of these facts.
The Overjoyed’s pacey pop-punk sounds like the work of somebody frantically running away from imminent danger. “Rotten Love” is emotional rock played with intensity and purpose, played like this might be the only chance that the band will ever get to tell their side of the story. Bands that cannot produce this kind of intensity, and there are many, frankly, needn’t even show up. It’s no wonder that The Overjoyed will open for Green Day on tour this Summer. It’s no wonder that people are paying attention to this.
